Monday, March 1, 2010

Chemists have found a way to decide two of the strongest bonds in chemistry - Nitrous (N2) and carbon monoxide (CO) - and to make useful organic compounds. This process is conducted through the hafnium complex - and is an important step towards developing ways to produce an important chemical raw materials abundant gas.

Although nitrogen is up to 78 percent of the atmosphere, but nitrogen is difficult to use in various industrial processes because of a triple bond is difficult to decide. Exclusion is the Haber process when making ammonia - but this process requires high pressure and temperature, and hydrogen gas usually comes from sources of fossil fuels.

Chemical alternatives to solve the triple bond of N2 was sangt-awaited and believed this demand will increase in the future. Paul Chirik and colleagues at Cornell University in New York, United States, has found a new way to do this - and the most shocking is that this process took place at room temperature.

"We found a method to combine two simple diatomic molecule with a very strong bond: N2 and CO, to create new organic fragments such as oxamide", said Chirik talk about his invention.

The key to this process is a compound called hafnocene, which is a hafnium metal ion complexes with cyclopentadiene and chlorine ligands. The complex can be activated to react with N2 by switching chlorine to iodine - N2 molecules causes each into hafnocenes complex between the two. This bonding effectively reduces the NN triple bond into a bond.

At this stage, carbon monoxide is added, the NN bond and decided to form a new bond CN. By varying the amount of CO added, various organic compounds can be made.

'The process of termination of this bond is a stoichiometric process, not a catalytic process - which means that a hafnium compounds needed for each N2 molecule is split, "said Chirik. "But this does not prevent us to continue to innovate. We have discovered new reactions and the unique transformation that we wish to apply to the catalytic reaction and an important industrial process. "

Unexpected results of this study are reactivity of CO - a bond with the N2 more strongly than metal ions, as previously thought. Alessandra Quadrelli at the University of Lyon, France, said: "We're trying to make NC bond from N2 bond" '.

"The establishment of the NC is an inert element, stable and abundant is the dream of chemists - because so many valuable compounds in the pharmaceutical and household products that can be made from this bond," he added.

Michael Fryzuk, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, agrees that there is great potential in the discovery process. "This work represents a whole new type of reactivity to Nitrous coordinated," he said. 'Every time someone discovered a new chemical for Nitrous transformation, we get closer to solving one of the chemical problem is very difficult: that of this invention can utilize N2 as a raw material for producing compounds organonitrogen. "

Chemists have found a way to decide two of the strongest bonds in chemistry - Nitrous (N2) and carbon monoxide (CO) - and to make useful organic compounds. This process is conducted through the hafnium complex - and is an important step towards developing ways to produce an important chemical raw materials abundant gas.

Although nitrogen is up to 78 percent of the atmosphere, but nitrogen is difficult to use in various industrial processes because of a triple bond is difficult to decide. Exclusion is the Haber process when making ammonia - but this process requires high pressure and temperature, and hydrogen gas usually comes from sources of fossil fuels.

Chemical alternatives to solve the triple bond of N2 was sangt-awaited and believed this demand will increase in the future. Paul Chirik and colleagues at Cornell University in New York, United States, has found a new way to do this - and the most shocking is that this process took place at room temperature.

"We found a method to combine two simple diatomic molecule with a very strong bond: N2 and CO, to create new organic fragments such as oxamide", said Chirik talk about his invention.

The key to this process is a compound called hafnocene, which is a hafnium metal ion complexes with cyclopentadiene and chlorine ligands. The complex can be activated to react with N2 by switching chlorine to iodine - N2 molecules causes each into hafnocenes complex between the two. This bonding effectively reduces the NN triple bond into a bond.

At this stage, carbon monoxide is added, the NN bond and decided to form a new bond CN. By varying the amount of CO added, various organic compounds can be made.

'The process of termination of this bond is a stoichiometric process, not a catalytic process - which means that a hafnium compounds needed for each N2 molecule is split, "said Chirik. "But this does not prevent us to continue to innovate. We have discovered new reactions and the unique transformation that we wish to apply to the catalytic reaction and an important industrial process. "

Unexpected results of this study are reactivity of CO - a bond with the N2 more strongly than metal ions, as previously thought. Alessandra Quadrelli at the University of Lyon, France, said: "We're trying to make NC bond from N2 bond" '.

"The establishment of the NC is an inert element, stable and abundant is the dream of chemists - because so many valuable compounds in the pharmaceutical and household products that can be made from this bond," he added.

Michael Fryzuk, at the University of British Columbia in Canada, agrees that there is great potential in the discovery process. "This work represents a whole new type of reactivity to Nitrous coordinated," he said. 'Every time someone discovered a new chemical for Nitrous transformation, we get closer to solving one of the chemical problem is very difficult: that of this invention can utilize N2 as a raw material for producing compounds organonitrogen. "